memes said:
Quote: ill hook you up with recipes and how to's if youre interested.

please 
i pmed it too, but heres for anyone else interested
so youre gonna need an initial investment in the tools to make a pizza, as is the case with all homemade shit, but you might have some stuff laying around. if you go to a swapmeet and roam around i promise youll find just about everything and spend less than $30 getting it all (if youre a good haggler, just pretend youre an old asian lady when you talk to sellers)
rolling pin (a good wine bottle will work if youre in a pinch, just dont apply your whole body weight to the center of it or anything haha)
pizza stone (a Large upside down baking pan will suffice in a pinch)
Pizza Peel - I highly suggest you pay a bit extra for Bamboo. It is awesome!!! it dries out easily though so dont go storing it in your car, or drying it in the oven. cool and dry. dough machine - breadmakers work very well if they have a DOUGH setting. I use this and couldnt be happier
cutting knife and a pizza roller - both cheap as fuck, i think i got the roller for free with my pizza stone, and i normally use a ceramic blade ($4 on ebay)
Ok you got your equipment. now to the more important ingredients:
start from the ground up - dough! It is the easily most overlooked element of a good pizza. I used to like that thick crusted shit that squished between and i was fuckin wrong man. go to a high end place where they put in a brick oven, and the dough is seared to perfection. thats what this is going for.
here the site i visit to make my dough, originally invented by alton brown, a badass motherfucker. This recipe should make you about 4 balls of dough that you can individually wrap and store in the fridge for up to two weeks. breadflour can be the bitch to hunt down, I use this stuff
pizza sauce - depends on what you like. I dont care for chunky sauces, unless ive added my own tomatoes. So i buy whatever flat marinara sauces the stores have. If im feeling zainy ill put it on the stove and add some of my own flavors, such as ground red pepper, ground back pepper, oregano, grated fresh garlic, and maybe a finely chopped fresh tomato. Add 1 tblsp of water to account for evaporation, or dont, and simmer covered for 30 min.
cheeses - these are important! Look in your store for the wet mozarella cheese. not the hard white shit, the shit that is kinda squishy. heres a common one. One 8 oz ball will usually make 2 pizzas
parmesan cheese is necessary, dont leave out this ingredient!! If you are lucky enough to see shreeded parmisiano reggiano, buy that. it is like crack added to a pizza. if you cant, get some other shredded paremsan, not the crappy stuff thats all ground up in the aisles. this will be in the cheese section.
Toppings - this is up to you. I like to cut mine all up into small cubes, it helps to not weigh down the pizza. Here is a mixture i like
Aged salami - like boars head, diced red onions, chopped fresh garlic (food chopper), 1 chopped jalepeno, 1 chopped serrano
place everything in a small skillet with a bit of oil, like sesame or olive. and heat on low-medium for 10 mintes. this will be your topping once its cooled.
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Timing of it all:
Warm dough is easier to manage to if youve prepared it ahead of time and its sitting in the fridge, take one of the balls out and let it warm. then start rolling it out on your pizza peel. youre gonna have to sprinkle flour about the peel and dough so it doesnt stick to shit.
During this time, throw your stone in the oven and set it to full blast, 550, or however high it will go. If you know your broiler well you can use that as on some ovens it will heat shit way higher than 550, just make sure your pizza isnt under it, or that you turn it off before you throw the pizza in there.
Once your dough is rolled out, make sure it slides easily around on the peel so you can easily load onto the stone. Once your oven has maxed out, load the dough onto the stone for about 1 minute. Watch it through the oven, it will start to bubble up a bit. When this Begins to happen, open the oven, and place the peel on top of it to suppress the bubbles. 10 seconds later take the dough back out. on the bubble side get a fork and lightly poke holes through the crust. you can penetrate it, just try not to breach the other side. light poking. flip the crust over, the flat side is for your toppings.
as the oven is reheating back up, most importantly the stone, start adding your sauce, cheeses, toppings. you can top it off with black pepper/fresh basil, i wouldnt recomment salt as theres enough of that in the dough and sauce.
once its ready to go, the oven is heated back up fully, slide the pizza back into the oven. Its gonna sit in there for 5-7 minutes, until you can make out (hopefully without opening the oven) that the cheese is just starting to brown. carefully slide the peel under the cooked pizza and get it back on the thing. You cut the pizza on the peel if its bamboo, in my experience.
sorry this is long winded, but i have a strong passion for pizza haha. I usually make my dough days in advance before making the pizza. At first it took an hour or so, but now takes me about 30 minutes from dough to hot pizza. well worth it.
-------------------- notapillow said: "you are going about this endeavor all wrong. clear your mind of useless fear and concern. buy the ticket, take the ride, and all that.... "
ChrisWho said: "It's all about the journey, not the destination."
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